Peter Oborne is the Daily Telegraph's chief political commentator.

Why is it OK for the Government to bribe public servants, but not for journalists to pay them?

In the light of today’s Telegraph splash reporting that the NHS has been accused of spending £2 million on 50 secret gagging orders, I have been sent the following thought from an arrestee – one of those caught up in the Operation Elveden investigation into alleged bribery of public officials:

If it is OK for the Government to bribe public servants to hush up scandals, why is it wrong for newspapers to pay public servants to expose scandals? Which side is committing the greater legal or moral offence? Surely if it is illegal for journalists to pay officials to speak out, then it should be illegal for the State to pay them to shut up. Also, if the State uses bribery with taxpayers’ money to cover up scandals, then how else will public scandals ever be exposed without the press encouraging people to talk?

The Telegraph says half a million pounds and probably far more has been paid out by Trusts to silence NHS whistle-blowers from exposing such matters as the institutionalised manslaughter that went on at Stafford Hospital. This was done with the Government’s acquiescence. There has been no CPS inquiry, no dawn arrests and no two years on bail. Compare this with journalists. They (allegedly) pay for information about the very sort of public interest scandals the Government pays to have hushed up and end up in the Old Bailey.